Jordan and Molly are engaged.  This is super news.

They fill me with joy when I am with them.

On an unseasonably warm December day, we took some photos to celebrate.

My man Reese and I rolled up to the Sawtooth Music Festival at 7pm on Friday evening.
Our hour long drive from Sun Valley was the same ol’ nothing but beautiful – north
on 75 up over Galena Summit, past Smiley Creek Cabin (home of the world’s best
milkshakes… or at least Idaho’s best milkshakes), rolled past Redfish Lake and
then a left at the Stanley turnoff.

We missed the first 3/4ths of the weekend, but we were determined to
enjoy ourselves to the fullest for the remainder of the party.  Our first task
was to find a camping spot.  This first task was made easy when, while
still sitting in Reese’s Honda Element, we were set upon by two
beautiful girls – Amy and Darcy – who are not lesbian sisters,
who immediately offered us swigs of Sweet Tea Vodka
and warned us not to leave the vicinity without setting up camp.

Now, denying one pretty girl might have been difficult, but denying
TWO pretty girls seemed downright impossible, if not just plain silly.
We found a cush spot a few cars away and set out to dance and see the music.

And then the rain came.

And the thunder and the lightning.

The rain drops were like cold tiny water balloons and they fell
like industrial sprinklers at a perfect 45 degree angle from the south.

The four of us took refuge in Reese’s Element and enjoyed the
half case of PBR that was conveniently located at our feet.  An acoustic
jam session ensued, full of steel strings, harmonicas and the always
essential tambourine.

Plus an orange glow stick axe, of course.

And then the sun came out.

Just in time to set.

And then when I didn’t think it would get any prettier, a rainbow appeared.

As did two other beautiful people, Mary and Cherene.

All at once, there was a rainbow to the east, a sunset to the west, and
sun-kissed mountain peaks to the south.  It was like we were all
Hobbits, marching away from Mordor for the last time.

Is that too much of a LOTR nerd reference?

I don’t think so.  A few people told me the same thing, and
we became instant friends.  (Obviously)

Nite fell upon us, as did the rain, later that evening.  We
resorted to more acoustic jam sessions and indulging in
our rapidly depleting stash of PBRs.  Mary and Cherene
helped restock us halfway thru the performance, and
we were eternally grateful.

The band known as Free Peoples were gypped of their set
that Saturday nite, and so for 2 hours late into the darkness,
they played next to the stage with only their amps and
one microphone to carry their sound thru the field.
They rokked my face off, and I’m pretty sure the fiddle
player melted the majority of the other 150+ audience
members faces as well.

And so it was that a faceless audience was rokked to
sleep that nite in front of the Sawtooth mountains
under the milky way.

And the next morning, we all awoke to a fog that
hadn’t been seen in months.

My man Timone and Tess drove me home the next day
while Reese went off on a kayaking adventure.

And then for good measure, I schooled Timone and Tess on
my new favourite phenomenon – Owling.
(You must see the bottom photo on that page – “Hawking”)

Though I think I may have to still work on my form a bit.

-JoeySee

After a long, hot, beautiful, action packed, dancing dominated, firework filled 4th of July weekend,
the McNees clan invited me to head out with them to Redfish Lake for the day.

I can think of very few ways to better end a great weekend, than by hanging out with super fun family and
friends by a fresh water lake on a sunny summer day, with jagged snow capped mountains as the backdrop.

What a great weekend…

Life Lesson #2: Definitely, don’t make this mistake twice in a row.

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Timberstock 2011.

4 years strong.

A fantastical weekend full of peace, love, rock ‘n’ roll and more.

Thank you Thank you Thank you to the Timber Lake crew.

See you again next year.

I was supposed to photograph Amanda and her friend Brad together in NYC.  They’re in a band.  They’re called Jack and Rose.

Brad couldn’t make it.

So I said, “Amanda.”

And she said, “What.”

I was like, “Let’s take some photos anyway.”

She was all, “OK.”

AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED:

Because Amanda effing Rokks.

-JoeySee

The following cartoon is my first and only attempt at cartooning.

It is in the form of a letter home to my dear friend, Flounder.

From the fall of 2008.

When I was in South Africa.

Enjoy.

“The Capricious Quixotic Quests of Flojo”

Here are the cartoons in their entirety:

It was late on a Monday nite.  I had arrived in Delaware earlier that day, and spent the majority of it reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire inside of a local coffee shop called Central Perk.  After an evening spent eating wings at a bar and watching Michael Vick single-handedly crush the Washington Redskins (I’m not an Eagles fan, I just was amazed at how dominating Vick was), I returned to the friendly Starter Home at the end of Chapel St. where my friends reside.

I walked into a living room full of Deltones.  What are Deltones?  Check out their website – www.deltones.com – to find out.

Their rehearsal was ending, and as everyone scurried about and rushed home to their dorms and places of residence, only a few stragglers remained behind to chat.  Katie was one of them.  I looked at her and asked very simply, “When am I going to photograph you?”  We agreed that Thursday would work.  And it did.

Here’s Katie…

A few weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of going for a walk in the woods with Chelsea.

The wind was fierce, the colours were exploding, and we talked about the bass ackwards idea that Chelsea was raised a NY Giants fan, despite the fact that she grew up in upstate NY, which should put her squarely in the misery camp with the rest of us Buffalo Bills fans.

What a great day for photos it was!

My last post was about the food at Feastival.

This one is about the people and the land.

Beautiful sights, beautiful souls.

What a magical weekend…

–JoeySee

Last nite I sat naked in a wood fire hot tub, underneath a blind black sky with the Milky Way sprayed across the center of it all like a never ending heavenly backbone.

The stars to the east took the shape of a butterfly and were furiously twinkling like the subtle camera flashes of distant paparazzi, and I was Angelina Jolie.

All this after a hard days work building a bridge down in the lower property of Base Camp, here on the edge of the Big Lost River, in the mountains of Idaho.

I had posted earlier about Base Camp (you can read the post here) when I first arrived in Idaho.  Back then, we were prepping the land for the hordes of children that would frequent it during a spectacular Mountain Adventure Tours summer.  This time around, we are doing a thorough cleansing and building for the second annual Feastival, as put on by Mat and Whitney.

The purpose of Feastival is many fold.  The primary purpose is to raise money for the building of an eco-retreat center at Base Camp, for use by the community in and around Sun Valley and Trail Creek.

Other purposes of Feastival include eating delicious home grown Idaho food, listening to live local music, dancing your pants off, enjoying nature and everything else around.

Before coming up to Base Camp, I designed posters for the event.  My favourite one is below…

Cutting fire wood, splitting fire wood, clear paths in the lower property, set up stage for musicians, clear out camping spots, get rid of all the cow pies littering the property, etc.  But by far the biggest task we had to undertake, was building a bridge that spans the 25 foot wide river running thru the property.

In years past, there have been bridges built.  Without fail, every year, the bridge gets destroyed over the winter and spring months because of snow, ice, and floods.

We wanted this bridge to be different.  We wanted this bridge to last for at least a few years.  We called in our friend Mark, who took the reins on the project.  In two days, we had a bridge.  Please enjoy the before and after series below, and if you’re in the Idaho area, come to Feastival this weekend.

And now that that’s done, here are some extra photos from the past two days.  Mostly of Mat and Mark, for the lady folk.  But I do apologize ladies, they are both happily taken.

-JoeySee

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